Classic Albums: The Grateful Dead – Anthem To Beauty
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: D Main Program: B-
The Grateful Dead continue to live on, despite the loss of
figurehead Jerry Garcia. The catalog is
a big seller for Warner Bros., made all the more amusing by this unusual
installment of the Classic Albums series. In this case, two albums are covered to show how they went from a
very experimental band with the likes of Anthem Of The Sun to the
commercial success of American Beauty.
This is the only installment to date to have two albums in one show, or
for a single act, in Anthem To Beauty.
For those who do not know the band, this is a great crash
course, loaded with great interviews and vintage footage, plus funny stories of
how Warner executives were even afraid to visit the band in the concern that
they might get drugged by beverages being served in the studio. For a public that may only have caught Truckin’
on FM album Rock stations, their range and talent is well covered in the 75 minutes
of this program.
The first album is more of an instrumental, experimental
work that defined the leisure of the counterculture on many levels. The latter had them veering into what they
considered more typical melodic material, but on their terms. They seem to see it as the band as growing
up, though some diehard fans might consider it a compromise in the least. However, the band’s sound remained more in
tact then they realize, a sound that can be best described as an acoustic
Country Folk that leans towards Rock more than most Folk of any period
did. The psychedelia was still there
and the change happened just in time for the early 1970s, so the journey shown
here makes sense. It is an interesting
evolution of an important band and Garcia was such a good singer. Anyone who does not know the band’s work
will come away with a new respect for it after this show.
The 1.33 X 1 image is not bad for its age, being one of
the first installments in the series.
This would be a tad sharper than the original Rhino cardboard snapper
release a few years ago, as was the case with Rumours covered elsewhere
on this site. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo has some Pro Logic surrounds and is not bad either, though the Rhino
version had PCM 2.0 Stereo sound. That
might be a bit better, but not by much.
Of course, the tracks on either DVD version of this title here from American
Beauty could never match the higher-definition MLP tracks on the
Warner/Rhino DVD-Audio version of that album issued in late 2001. They sound really good, especially coming
from the original master tapes. Two
such releases, the other being Workingman’s Dead, are in the format so
far. Save the best vinyl versions, they
are the performers to beat. The only
extra is a brief text discography, but nothing else. For fans and the interested, this should be more than enough,
again in print as it should be.
- Nicholas Sheffo
